U2 Unveil ‘Joshua Tree 2017′ Tour Dates

U2 will spend the summer on the road celebrating the release of their watershed 1987 album The Joshua Tree by performing the entire LP in concert.

"Recently I listened back to The Joshua Tree for the first time in nearly 30 years," Bono said in the tour announcement. "It’s quite an opera. A lot of emotions which feel strangely current, love, loss, broken dreams, seeking oblivion, polarization ... all the greats. ... I’ve sung some of these songs a lot ... but never all of them. I’m up for it, if our audience is as excited as we are. ... It’s gonna be a great night."

"It seems like we have come full circle from when The Joshua Tree songs were originally written, with global upheaval, extreme right wing politics and some fundamental human rights at risk," added guitarist the Edge. "To celebrate the album — as the songs seem so relevant and prescient of these times too — we decided to do these shows, it feels right for now. We’re looking forward to it."

Tickets for the tour, which begins May 12 in Vancouver, go on sale for U2 subscribers Jan. 11; public sale is scheduled to start Jan. 16 in Europe and a day later in the United States. The tour's North American leg, which features support from opening acts Mumford & Sons, the Lumineers and OneRepublic, includes an appearance at Bonnaroo — the band's first-ever U.S. headlining performance.

As the Edge told Rolling Stone, the Tree dates give the band an opportunity to celebrate its storied past without curtailing its commitment to new music — which includes the impending release of Songs of Experience, an LP he says they temporarily held off on releasing so they could "make sure that it really was what we wanted to say." That delay gave them an opportunity to reflect on a record many still view as their crowning achievement, and hear it in the context of current events.

"The two sort of coincided and we decided we were gonna do some shows. And we've never given ourselves the opportunity to celebrate our past because we've always as a band looked forward, but I think we felt that this was a special moment, and this was a very special record," he added. "So we're happy to take this moment to regroup and think about an album that's so many years old, but still seems relevant."